Hiding the Wound – Homage to Mr Freud

I’m absolutely delighted that my work Hiding the Wound – Homage to Mr Freud (1979) is part of the Coming Out exhibition, which has just opened at Liverpool’s Walker Art Gallery. The show celebrates the diversity of LBGT voices over the last 50 years since the first steps were taken in the decriminalising of homosexuality in the United Kingdom.

According to the information accompanying Hiding the Wound, “the title of this artwork refers to the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) It also refers to his theory known as the Oedipus Complex. This suggested that women believed that they had been wounded, or castrated, when they discovered they didn’t have a penis as a child.

“Wright was active in the women’s liberation movement during the 1970s. Her practice at that time explored gender and sexuality through photography and performance. This work, she explains, ‘by means of sewing, a so-called feminine activity, responds to the female experience under male supremacy.'”

For me, it was always a quite light-hearted piece, a visual joke at the expense of Freudian solemnity.

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